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Man reaches astronauts with amateur radio
- ugh 16y agoAll the interesting information is missing in this article. It’s like writing about technical details of the telephone network under the headline “Man Reaches President With Normal Telephone”. It’s not surprising that the White House has a telephone number, it’s surprising that the call was answered. Reaching something that is merely a few hundred miles away with no obstacles blocking the signal doesn’t seem very challenging to me. The problem has to be the speed with which the ISS is moving across the sky which doesn’t give you very much time to make contact. Much more interesting, however, would be why the hell the ISS is listening and responding.
- TheAmazingIdiot 16y agoWhy the ISS is listening? Most astronauts are HAMs. Also, for an emergency radio, go calculate the signal strength of a 1W 2M/70cm radio with the worst possible antenna: damn near everybody can 'hear' you. Your signal can be heard clearly up to, I think, around 8000 miles. One of the older ARRL magazines published that as one of the 'games'.
- wglb 16y agoThe article, as ugh points out, that it is very much unencumbered with facts. Here are some references that talk about the process in general: http://www.arrl.org/frequently-asked-questions http://www.arrl.org/frequently-asked-questions There are other references available on that page. Several of the ISS crew are licensed amateur radio operators, and they will be available on the air as their work schedule permits. Often contacts are scheduled with school classrooms, as noted http://www.arrl.org/ariss-contact-stories http://www.arrl.org/ariss-contact-stories. So part of the problem is the angular velocity of the station as seen from earth, but with omni-directional antennas on the ground, that is not a significant obstacle. The biggest obstacle is the work schedule of the crew.
- naz 16y agoIs this a security issue? Could someone hold open communications with them and effectively DOS Houston?
- ugh 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#Communications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#Com... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_and_Data_Relay_Satellite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_and_Data_Relay_Satelli... It seems all their important stuff is routed via satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
- phuff 16y agoAs wglb points out, they frequently talk on their amateur radio as a means of entertainment. A lot of astronauts that go up to the ISS get licenses so they can chat with people when they get bored and have some free time on their hands.
- jrockway 16y agoIs low-Earth orbit inside the FCC's jurisdiction? (Just wondering why they need licenses in space. They're in space!)
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- ja27 16y agoI'm not sure what's more rare: working the space station or seeing a ham radio story covered by the media.
- kordless 16y ago250 miles is nothing. I had a friend in college who's dad did this with a bunch of ham radio equipment and a huge satellite dish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EME_(communications) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EME_(communications)